About

A very warm welcome! My name is Victoria Blake and I’m the author of eight books. My most recent novel is TITIAN’S BOATMAN (re-titled as THE RETURN OF THE COURTESAN in paperback). It  is historical fiction set partly in Renaissance Venice and partly in 21st century London and New York. Sunday Times bestseller, Rory Clements, author of Holy Spy, had this to say about it.

‘From the squalid glamour of the 16th century Venice to modern-day London and New York, Titian’s Boatman demonstrates the power of art to bridge the years and transform lives. With fine, elegant brush-strokes, Victoria Blake has created a rich and enchanting novel.’

In one of my favourite bookshops, Foyles on the Charing Cross Road, London.

I’m also the author of the PI Sam Falconer crime series: BLOODLESS SHADOW, CUTTING BLADES, SKIN AND BLISTER and JUMPING THE CRACKS. These books are set in South West London and Oxford. I have also written two true crime books based on documents in the National Archives. One on Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, and the other on Florence Maybrick, who was accused of poisoning her husband with arsenic in 1889.

My book, FAR AWAY, was shortlisted for the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016 and is set during the second world war. It draws on my father’s account of escaping from a prisoner of war camp in Italy. If you are interested in this area of history please click on FAR AWAY: BLOG in the menu above because I’ve posted material there relating to my father’s escape specifically and Allied POWs in Italy in general.

I was brought up in The Queen’s College, Oxford where my father was the Provost and went to university in the same city, studying history at Lady Margaret Hall. Subsequently, I worked in law, publishing and book selling. In 2019 I was a judge for the Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown Award for Fiction.

Here you’ll find information about my books, tips on writing, and the occasional review. I have also written about my experiences of working in a second-hand bookshop in London. If you want a taster of those, click on TALES FROM THE BOOKTRADE. Many thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy whatever you read!